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Circulating Tfh cell and subsets distribution are associated with low-responsiveness to hepatitis B vaccination
Mingjuan Yin1, Yongzhen Xiong2, Dongmei Liang3
1Department of Preventive Medicine, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China.
Background:
An estimated 5-10 % of healthy vaccinees lack adequate antibody response following receipt of a standard three-dose hepatitis B vaccination regimen. The cellular mechanisms responsible for poor immunological responses to hepatitis B vaccine have not been fully elucidated to date.
Methods:
There were 61 low responders and 56 hyper responders involved in our study. Peripheral blood samples were mainly collected at D7, D14 and D28 after revaccinated with a further dose of 20 µg of recombinant hepatitis B vaccine.
Results:
We found low responders to the hepatitis B vaccine presented lower frequencies of circulating follicular helper T (cTfh) cells, plasmablasts and a profound skewing away from cTfh2 and cTfh17 cells both toward cTfh1 cells. Importantly, the skewing of Tfh cell subsets correlated with IL-21 and protective antibody titers. Based on the key role of microRNAs involved in Tfh cell differentiation, we revealed miR-19b-1 and miR-92a-1 correlated with the cTfh cell subsets distribution and antibody production.
Conclusions:
Our findings highlighted a decrease in cTfh cells and specific subset skewing contribute to reduced antibody responses in low responders.
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